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1 – 10 of over 5000Wei Liu, Jing Wei Li and Qi Wei Zhou
From a functionalist perspective, this study aims to examine empirically how positive and negative emotions can exert influence on creativity in the workplace. This study built…
Abstract
Purpose
From a functionalist perspective, this study aims to examine empirically how positive and negative emotions can exert influence on creativity in the workplace. This study built and tested a theoretical framework that delineates the effect of emotions on employee creativity through different learning mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
Field surveys were conducted in a Chinese company and data were collected from 340 employee-supervisor dyads.
Findings
The results indicate that positive emotions were positively related to task-related learning and interactional learning, both of which promote employee creativity. Task-related learning mediated the association between positive emotions and creativity. Nevertheless, negative emotions hindered employees from interactional learning and were negatively associated with creativity. Interactional learning mediated the association between negative emotions and creativity. Moreover, the interaction between positive and negative emotions was negatively associated with task-related learning.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on emotions and employee learning by demonstrating the value of using a functionalist perspective through different procedural mechanisms for employee outcomes and exploring the mediation effects of different learning behaviors in promoting creativity.
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Na Lu, Wei Zhou and Zhi Wu Dou
Intelligent manufacturing has attracted extensive attention from national strategy, academic research and enterprises' practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Intelligent manufacturing has attracted extensive attention from national strategy, academic research and enterprises' practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of intelligent manufacturing on performance in manufacturing firms. Moreover, how intelligent manufacturing technology affects enterprise performance, this study provided a practice that can be replicated by other businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses text mining to collect the intelligence level of Chinese listed companies. It uses quantitative analysis to test the proposed model based on samples of 2,091 manufacturers.
Findings
Intelligent manufacturing has positive effect on short-term performance and long-term performance. Intelligent manufacturing can empower firms with ambidextrous capabilities, including exploit capability and explore capability. Exploit capability has positive effects on short-term performance and long-term performance. Explore capability has negative effects on short-term performance, but has positive effects on long-term performance.
Originality/value
On the theoretical side, it enriches the research framework between intelligent manufacturing and enterprise performance. This study explains the preconditions and results of ambidextrous capabilities. Moreover, based on the practice-based view (PBV), this study proposes that technologies can be used as strategies, filling a gap in the existing research on strategic management. On the practical side, how to quantify the intelligent manufacturing level of enterprises provides a certain reference. Also, this study provides an easy to imitate practice that can serve as a model for under-performing enterprises.
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Ying Zhang, Xialing Wei and Wei Zhou
This paper aims to examine the asymmetric effect of cultural distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adjustment through the mechanisms of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the asymmetric effect of cultural distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adjustment through the mechanisms of conflict management styles.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper conceptualizes a model depicting the interplay between culture intelligence, conflict management styles, cultural flows and expatriate adjustment.
Findings
The authors argue that the integrating style aggravates the positive effects of cultural intelligence on expatriate adjustment, while the avoiding style may undermine such effects. There is also a possible moderating effect of cultural distance asymmetry on the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adjustment such that, the positive influence of cultural intelligence on adjustment is reinforced when the expatriate is sent from a loose cultural environment to adjust to a tight cultural environment, and that the positive influence of cultural intelligence on adjustment is diminished when the expatriate is sent from a tight cultural environment to adjust to a loose cultural environment.
Originality/value
This paper explicates the mediating effect of conflict management styles and the moderating roles of cultural distance asymmetry on the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adjustment. The authors suggest that the level of adjustment is contingent on the direction of cultural flows that the assignment operates in.
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Biao Liu, Qiao Wang, Y.T. Feng, Zongliang Zhang, Quanshui Huang, Wenxiang Tian and Wei Zhou
3D steady heat conduction analysis considering heat source is conducted on the fundamental of the fast multipole method (FMM)-accelerated line integration boundary element method…
Abstract
Purpose
3D steady heat conduction analysis considering heat source is conducted on the fundamental of the fast multipole method (FMM)-accelerated line integration boundary element method (LIBEM).
Design/methodology/approach
Due to considering the heat source, domain integral is generated in the traditional heat conduction boundary integral equation (BIE), which will counteract the well-known merit of the BEM, namely, boundary-only discretization. To avoid volume discretization, the enhanced BEM, the LIBEM with dimension reduction property is introduced to transfer the domain integral into line integrals. Besides, owing to the unsatisfactory performance of the LIBEM when it comes to large-scale structures requiring massive computation, the FMM-accelerated LIBEM (FM-LIBEM) is proposed to improve the computation efficiency further.
Findings
Assuming N and M are the numbers of nodes and integral lines, respectively, the FM-LIBEM can reduce the time complexity from O(NM) to about O(N+ M), and a full discussion and verification of the advantage are done based on numerical examples under heat conduction.
Originality/value
(1) The LIBEM is applied to 3D heat conduction analysis with heat source. (2) The domain integrals can be transformed into boundary integrals with straight line integrals by the LIM. (3) A FM-LIBEM is proposed and can reduce the time complexity from O(NM) to O(N+ M). (4) The FM-LIBEM with high computational efficiency is exerted to solve 3D heat conduction analysis with heat source in massive computation successfully.
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Qiao Wang, Wei Zhou, Yonggang Cheng, Gang Ma and Xiaolin Chang
Domain integrals, known as volume potentials in 3D elasticity problems, exist in many boundary-type methods, such as the boundary element method (BEM) for inhomogeneous partial…
Abstract
Purpose
Domain integrals, known as volume potentials in 3D elasticity problems, exist in many boundary-type methods, such as the boundary element method (BEM) for inhomogeneous partial differential equations. The purpose of this paper is to develop an accurate and reliable technique to effectively evaluate the volume potentials in 3D elasticity problems.
Design/methodology/approach
An adaptive background cell-based domain integration method is proposed for treatment of volume potentials in 3D elasticity problems. The background cells are constructed from the information of the boundary elements based on an oct-tree structure, and the domain integrals are evaluated over the cells rather than volume elements. The cells that contain the boundary elements can be subdivided into smaller sub-cells adaptively according to the sizes and levels of the boundary elements. The fast multipole method (FMM) is further applied in the proposed method to reduce the time complexity of large-scale computation.
Findings
The method is a boundary-only discretization method, and it can be applied in the BEM easily. Much computational time is saved by coupling with the FMM. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method..
Originality/value
Boundary elements are used to create adaptive background cells, and domain integrals are evaluated over the cells rather than volume elements. Large-scale computation is made possible by coupling with the FMM.
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Lei Cao, Jianlin Cai, Cheng Wang, Tianyou Yang, Wei Zhou and Liwu Wang
The purpose of this study is to describe and observe the influence of boundary slip associated with an arbitrary entrainment angle on the contact lubrication properties of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe and observe the influence of boundary slip associated with an arbitrary entrainment angle on the contact lubrication properties of ellipses.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the modified Reynolds equation, the boundary slip of any angle is considered in the elliptic contact, and numerical simulation is carried out. In the above calculation, the progressive mesh densification method is used, which greatly reduces the computation time.
Findings
The results indicate that the variation of film thickness corresponding to different entrainment angles is distinct from those without considering boundary slip. In addition, boundary slip reduces the central film thickness and minimum film thickness, which makes the hydrodynamic pressure distribution smoother.
Originality/value
The present study focuses on the specific condition with the arbitrary direction of rolling and sliding velocity found in hypoid gears and worm, and some other components. The influence of boundary slip associated with arbitrary entrainment angle on the lubrication film thickness in elliptical contacts is first revealed, which improves a good understanding of elastohydrodynamic lubrication characteristics.
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Zhi Yang, Cai Yang, Chongyu Lu, Feng Wang and Wei Zhou
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and investigate social brokers who belong to and connect multiple groups in a social network. This paper also reveals the differential…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and investigate social brokers who belong to and connect multiple groups in a social network. This paper also reveals the differential effects of innovative and following social brokers on content diffusion in terms of adoption timing, speed and size.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper collected field data related to 69,086 users on the largest social network platform in China and analysed their adoption behaviours of 2,492 pieces of content.
Findings
The analysis reveals that social brokers encourage content diffusion and accelerate the speed of content adoption in a social network. Specifically, following social brokers play a greater role than innovative social brokers in accelerating the speed of content adoption and expanding the size of content adoption. However, in the early stage of content diffusion within the social network, innovative social brokers could predict the success of content adoption more effectively than following social brokers.
Research limitations/implications
This research extends the current diffusion literature by introducing the social broker and examining the effect of social brokers on the process of content adoption.
Practical implications
The findings provide suggestions to marketing managers on how to improve the diffusion of marketing-related content, such as by seeding specific people – that is, social brokers – with content, so they can serve as content transmitters in marketing campaigns. In addition, the findings suggest that to optimise content adoption in a social network, managers should strategically target innovative social brokers or following social brokers at various stages of content seeding-based marketing campaigns.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to test the effects of social brokers on content adoption and identify innovative and following social brokers. The findings enrich the literature on content marketing by providing new perspectives on social structures in social networks.
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Wenxiong Wang, Lihong Yu, Wei Zhou, David W. Marcouiller and Bin Luo
Effective farmer participation in the rural land consolidation process has become increasingly important because it improves results in rural land consolidation and land use…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective farmer participation in the rural land consolidation process has become increasingly important because it improves results in rural land consolidation and land use efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanism of farmers’ effective participation in Chinese rural land consolidation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors empirically assess farmers’ effective participation in the rural land consolidation process in ten counties of China’s Hubei province. Focusing on an effective decision-making model, the authors comprehensively evaluated farmer participation using surveys that incorporated an index system and analyzed survey results using a structural equation model to examine factors that influenced farmer’s effective participation.
Findings
The results of the study suggest that the correlations between farmers’ effective participation and the impacting factors the authors proposed were particularly strong. In addition, participation ability, participation opportunity and participation incentive are strongly associated with effective farmer participation. Thus, the authors highlight that incentives should be provided to encourage farmers’ effective participation in rural land consolidation.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen approach and the set of the research object, the geographic context of the empirical survey work was limited; furthermore, the authors only studied the influencing factors at the individual level, leaving the interaction effects between governmental factors and farmer individual factors inadequately explained.
Originality/value
Despite those limitations, these results serve as an important reference for government agencies and stakeholder groups in rural land consolidation decision making.
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Wei Zhou, David Heesom, Panagiotis Georgakis and Joseph H.M. Tah
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the CSCW in collaborative 4D modelling and its user interface (UI)/interaction designs for prototyping. Four-dimensional (4D) modelling…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the CSCW in collaborative 4D modelling and its user interface (UI)/interaction designs for prototyping. Four-dimensional (4D) modelling technology has potentials to integrate geographically dispersed planners to achieve collaborative construction planning. However, applying this technology in teamwork remains a challenge in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW).
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted user-centred design (UCD) methodology to investigate a usable 4D collaboration prototype through analysis, design and usability testing. By applying CSCW theories, it first clarified the meaning of 4D CSCW to formulate design propositions as design target. By leveraging UCD theories, subsequently, the first-stage research sought an optimal standalone 4D modelling prototype following a parallel design approach. At the second stage, it further investigated into a collaborative 4D modelling prototype using an iterative design. It adopted collaborative task analysis into the UI/interaction design extension for a collaborative prototype based on results obtained from the first stage. The final usability testing was performed on the collaborative prototype to evaluate the designed CSCW and UI in a controlled geographically dispersed teamwork situation.
Findings
The test results and user feedback verified their usability. It also disclosed design weaknesses in collaborators’ awareness and smooth tasks’ transitions for further enhancement.
Originality/value
The combination of CSCW and UCD theories is practical for designing collaborative 4D modelling. It can also benefit designs for collaborative modelling in other dimensions like cost analysis, sustainable design, facility management, etc. in building information modelling.
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Wei Ding, Kaimei Peng, Tao Zou, Ruonan Wang, Jinshan Guo, Wei Ping Tu, Chao Liu and Jianqing Hu
The purpose of this paper is to develop non-leaching and eco-friendly antimicrobial waterborne polyacrylates with excellent antibacterial properties by grafting antibacterial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop non-leaching and eco-friendly antimicrobial waterborne polyacrylates with excellent antibacterial properties by grafting antibacterial vinyl monomer, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) modified polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (PHMG).
Design/methodology/approach
PHMG of different molecular weights were modified by GMA to synthesize antibacterial vinyl monomer, GMA-modified PHMG (GPHMG). Different content and molecular weights of GPHMG were used to synthesize antimicrobial waterborne polyacrylates through emulsion polymerization.
Findings
The addition of GPHMG gained by modifying PHMG showed little influence on thermal stability of the films, but decreased the glass transition temperature(Tg). Meanwhile, the tensile strength decreased, while the breaking elongation increased. The antibacterial properties of the antibacterial films with different GPHMG contents were studied, when GPHMG content was around 0.9 Wt.%, antibacterial films showed excellent antibacterial activity (antibacterial rate >= 99.99 per cent). When weight content of GPHMG in the films remained constant, antibacterial property of films increased first and then decreased with the increase of molecular weight of GPHMG. The structural antibacterial polymer film had more perdurable antibacterial activity than the blended one.
Research limitations/implications
The grafting efficiency of GPHMG to antimicrobial waterborne polyacrylates could be further improved.
Practical implications
Antimicrobial waterborne polyacrylates with excellent antibacterial properties can be used to antibacterial coating and adhesive.
Originality/value
The antibacterial properties of films with different molecular weight of GPHMG were studied, and the durability and stability of antibacterial properties between structural antimicrobial films and blended antimicrobial films were also investigated by ring-diffusion method.
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